Current production motor vehicles, such as the modern-day automobile, are originally equipped with compartment cover assemblies that are movably mounted to the vehicle body to provide access to the vehicle's various compartments. Driver-side and passenger-side vehicle doors, for example, can be opened and closed to allow user access for entering and exiting the passenger compartment. Most conventional vehicle doors include a retractable window that can be opened, for example, via a manual crank or a switchable electric motor to provide limited access to the passenger compartment. In contrast, the engine hood (or “bonnet” in some countries) extends over and covers the vehicle's engine compartment to prevent theft of or damage to the engine components. By comparison, a traditional trunk compartment is composed of a large storage bin that is covered by a trunk lid mounted underneath the passenger compartment's rear deck. Each compartment cover assembly fits within a complementary opening in the vehicle body, oftentimes hinged to a body-in-white frame section and secured closed by a separate latching mechanism.
Many of these openings contain abutting flange portions that are welded or press-formed together to join an exterior body panel with an interior panel or reinforcement substructure of the vehicle. These flanges are often exposed when the door assembly, hood or trunk lid is opened, and are therefore commonly covered by a seal structure (most commonly known as a “weatherstrip”), e.g., to prevent the unwanted ingress of rain, wind, dust, and other environmental conditions from the exterior of the vehicle. A secondary purpose of these seal structures is to improve aesthetic appearance, prevent unintentional evacuation of interior air (e.g., heating and air conditioning), and mitigate occupant perceptible exterior noise. For vehicle doors with a sashless window frame, an A-pillar/roof rail seal also functions to stabilize and reinforce the windowpane against vibrations and external loading generated during normal operation of the vehicle.
Many conventional pillar and roof-mounted weatherstrips are multi-part constructions composed of an extruded V-shaped seal body with an embedded reinforcing member, such as a metallic seal retainer clip, positioned on an inboard side of the seal body. A flexible sealing segment, which projects integrally from an outboard side of the body, includes opposing elastic sealing lips that jointly receive an exposed peripheral edge of the windowpane. In cooperation with an inboard retainer seal molded to the seal body, the retainer clip mounts the weatherstrip to an inner periphery of an A-pillar applique or other commensurate frame support structure. The A-pillar applique, in turn, is mounted to the A-pillar by a dedicated reinforcement bracket—the applique is adhered to a foam seal at a flanged outboard end of the bracket whereas the bracket itself is fastened at an opposing inboard end thereof to the A-pillar.